[Dixielandjazz] The Magic of Believing - NYC JAZZ CLUB SCENE

[Steve barbone]

About a half century years ago, Claude M. Bristol wrote a book called "The
Magic of Believing". It changed the lives of millions of readers by
separating the positive thinkers and doers from the "nattering nabobs of
negativity". (Spiro Agnew)

Below is a look at the NY Jazz Club Scene from both "believers" and those
who surrender to negativism.

"The Magic of Believing" is available in paperback these days for $5.95 and
one of the best investments you could ever make. Phyllis Diller and I both
read it in the 1950s. She credits it with her transformation from dirt poor
desperate housewife to comedic success, fame and fortune..

Cheers,
Steve Barbone 


March 13, 2005 - NY TIMES - IN THE CLUBS - By BEN SISARIO

Artist Friendly
 

The economics of running a nightclub in Manhattan can be brutal. Besides
rent and insurance, there are utilities, those 1 a.m. calls to the plumber
and, oh yes, all those musicians to pay. Two long-running downtown clubs,
Luna Lounge and Fez, are closing this month, and others are struggling.

So the financial plan of the Stone, a new club that plans to open in April
at Avenue C and Second Street in the East Village, seems to defy logic: 100
percent of the money from the door will go to the musicians and no alcohol,
food or anything else will be sold inside, says John Zorn, the avant-garde
composer who is the club's artistic director. The most musician-friendly
clubs in the city generally give no more than 75 percent of the door and
rely heavily on alcohol sales. How will the Stone make it work? With a
little help from Mr. Zorn and his friends.

The club's operating budget is to be raised through sales of limited-edition
CD's, which will be produced at minimal expense. Recording time will be
donated by the bassist Bill Laswell at his studio in New Jersey, and
manufacturing will be handled free by Mr. Zorn's record label, Tzadik, and
his chief contractor, A to Z Music Services. The CD's will be sold online,
at cost, by the Downtown Music Gallery, a longtime booster. The club itself,
in a former Chinese restaurant, is being rented from a filmmaker friend. The
first CD will probably feature Mr. Zorn, the vocalist Mike Patton and Mr.
Laswell, Mr. Zorn said.

"We can sell 4,000 copies at $20 and run the place on $80,000 a year," he
said. That would cover the rent, insurance and utilities, as well as a fee
for Daniel Goldaracena, who will run the club's day-to-day operations.
Bookings will be done by musicians in rotating monthlong curatorships; the
first, for April, is the saxophonist Ned Rothenberg. "This is about a
community coming together," Mr. Zorn said. "The downtown scene is so diverse
that it eludes classification, but it functions as a community, with people
helping each other."